I believe we are living in a very exciting and powerful time. You may not agree with this of course, we’re different human beings with different backgrounds, experiences and different conditioning. We’re allowed to see things in different ways and no one would be bad or wrong for doing so.
Why do I think it’s an exciting and powerful time? I feel that on the deepest level of consciousness, a radical spiritual transformation is taking place in a universal scale. We’re all in some way being challenged to let go of our present way of living and create a new one in its place.
The old way of living, the old world, built its foundations on external things. The focus has always been outwards. So much so, in fact, that we’ve lost our spiritual connection along the way and have come to believe that the material world is the only plane of existence we can live on. The only reality that exists. We have arrived at a point where we’ve been so disconnected for so long that we now believe that feeling lost, empty or alone are synonymous with being alive. We are constantly trying to fill the void and find ‘true’ fulfilment and happiness through external things: material possessions, money, relationships, success, career, drugs, alcohol, sex, power… to name but a few.
A new way of living has begun to emerge though and it is built within us. It consciously allows the creative energy of a higher power or divine energy and presence to move internally. A new way of living is welcoming and allowing us to become aware of our free choice and power to co-create our own reality, and waking us up to our responsibility to do so. The change starts within each individual, and as more and more of us are transformed, the mass consciousness is increasingly affected. Can you feel it?
For many of us, this time may have been distressing… it may still indeed be, because the state of the world and for some of us, our personal lives, may seem to be going from bad to worse. In many cases, many things, systems and ways of life that used to work very well, are no longer working at all. In a way, things are falling apart and I think they’ll continue to do so with ever greater intensity. I however, don’t think this is negative. It’s upsetting due to the nature of our physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual attachment to the old way of living and fidelity to our old limiting conditioning. But if we open our eyes to the profound changes that are happening globally, we can change our perspectives of the unfolding events. Everything has to ‘crumble’ in a sense, before it can be rebuilt on new foundations. I remember a Muslim friend of mine, Khan, who taught me something really relevant once, that everything that happens to us that we perceive as a negative, is nothing but a ‘blessing in disguise’. In fact, all the changes we’re undergoing are the most incredible blessings that any of us could possibly imagine.
Truth is that the old way of living that characterised the hundreds of thousands of years humans have existed, no longer works. And if you really stop and think about it, did it ever bring us deep fulfilment and joy anyway? Imperialism, racism, war, disease and colonialism are some tragic drives for external fulfilment that come to mind. Some people will say they have managed to live happy lives. I would challenge them by asking the following question: Were you really and deeply happy and joyful? Were you living and breathing your universal purpose? Or is there a part of you that felt the disillusion, pain and void that has plagued the human existence until today?
After a long journey of self-discover and empowerment, I’ve become aware that we spend our entire lives being taught, through society, justice and education, the exact opposite of how the universe actually functions. We do our best to make things work the way we’ve been taught, and we may even achieve some degree of success along the way. But in so-called developed societies especially, it always seems as though things never turn out quite as we’d hoped.
It may seem as though there’s never quite enough money. We may find that the ideal relationship never materialises or fades away for some reason even when it does. We may not get the recognition that we want. We may struggle to find success in our career of choice. We may feel disappointed in the way our children have grown up, never meeting our expectations. We may struggle to feel fully secure in our lives, or struggle to feel gratitude for all the things that help us to live a secure life. Have you noticed that even when we do achieve one or more of these things, we still seem to feel a sense that there just must be something more.
Our first responsibility, if we want to give way to the new way of living, is to recognise that we have are not given a 101 on living a satisfying live in traditional, systemic education. The way of life passed down to us in school and our families was passed down to them from older generations practicing from a faulty manual on how to live a fulfilling life.
It’s time to go back to basics, back to primary school and learn it all from scratch again. Beliefs and convictions need to be shifted. If an athlete builds upon the wrong foundations, they’re not setting themselves up for longevity or true success. What do they do? Blame themselves? Become victims? No. Upon recognising their shaky foundations, they go back to basics and rebuild new foundations based upon what was missing in their previous training. The same goes for the rest of us, athletes and non-athletes alike. It’s about going back to the beginning and learning a new way of living that’s different from the way we’ve assimilated so far.
For many of us, this might not be an easy task. It will take time, commitment and courage, first to choose to do so, and then to actually do so.
We’ll be challenged by many factors including but not limited to:
- Familial, cultural and religious belief systems
- Laziness, procrastination, apathy, indifference (all avoidance techniques by the way)
- Doubts and cynism
- Fear
- Envy
We’ll have to have courage on our side. If it’s not something that comes naturally to us, courage can be developed through experience and daily practice and action, welcome mistakes and failure too… they’re a part of the process in learning a new way of living.
As I say in my workshops and public talks, just as a baby learns to walk by falling down repeatedly, we must learn a new way of facing life by doing exactly the same. We will learn by making mistakes and often, we’ll be scared, insecure, angry and fragile… exhausted too. And just as we do with babies, will will learn to accept, embrace and welcome those falls and mistakes as a part of the journey. We will keep loving ourselves. We will have to find and reconnect with our inner motivation every day: to do our best to live fully in accordance with the laws dictated by the universe and its Creator. Which is to say, do our best to live fully human, fully present, fully alive.
Is it an easy task to recognise where we are right now and start the journey? No. Self-awareness is the first step to building our new foundations to let go of the old way of living and enter a new way. And although the journey may seem arduous and relentless, I can assure you it is well worth whatever it will take for you to make the transition into the new.
Original article on www.elisabettafranzoso.com